Category: Spring 2013

For 150 years, a version of Speech/Speech Communication/Communication Studies has been taught and researched at Kansas State University. This past June, we enhanced that tradition by becoming an independent Department of Communication Studies.

One reason for this upgrade is growth. Today, we are the academic home to more than 125 undergraduate and graduate students and 12 full-time faculty members…

The 2012-13 debate season was filled with many successes for the Wildcats. The team is led by a new coaching staff comprised of head coach Joe Koehle and assistant coach Martin Osborn. Both new coaches bring big time experience to Manhattan, having previously coached at the University of Kansas and Wake Forest, two of the most storied programs in college debate.

“I have a question,” interjects an attorney before the judge issues a ruling on the objection, “can we exclude expert witnesses from sequestration under rule 615 by using rule 703 governing expert testimony?” The judge pauses reflectively at the question posed by the attorney, a faint glimmer of pride shining his eyes. The attorney, a 19 year old communication studies major from Kansas State University, the judge an attorney from Kansas City and one of the coaches for the Kansas State University college mock trial team.

Boldly stating an opinion in a courtroom of legal professionals may sound intimidating, but Brooke Larson was doing exactly that when she was just a sophomore at Kansas State University — and never looked back.

Larson earned a degree in communication studies with an emphasis in legal communication in December 2011; however, her K-State education began with a little experimentation. After exploring as an open option major, she tried out pre-dental, finance, marketing and public relations before finding a home her junior year in the department of communication studies.

Larson became interested in legal communication after her sophomore year, when she began volunteering for the Sunflower Court Appointed Special Advocate Project Inc. in Manhattan, known as Sunflower CASA. CASA is a national program, and the local branch serves children in Riley, Clay and Pottawatomie counties.